Welcome to the Poker League of Nations Blog!

Here is Natasha’s first article! Enjoy!

I spend endless hours reading up about the game of poker, perhaps even more than the number of hours I get to play these days. Poker has gained much more interest in the past decade as the number of players and the online content rise, which can be so overwhelming. I’m sure there are many players like myself cruising their way up to larger MTT fields or higher stakes with trial and error and still lots to learn. I hope you will join me on my stake-trotting journey as I share various topics of interest and my own experience as a poker player and aficionado. But first, allow me to introduce myself…

I was born and raised in Montreal in a traditional Italian family. As a venturing young adult, I spent 12 years on a Greek island where my first two children were born. Following my return to Montreal in 2012, during my maternity leave of my third (and last!) child, I decided to go back to College (yes, just a few years before turning 40!). As a multilingual, it was no wonder to anyone that I would choose to study in translation and consider a graduate degree in interpretation.

Poker was always around, from as far back as I can remember. As a child, I remember my uncles gathering every week to play, if it wasn’t poker it was another card game, then various friends of mine who’d get together and play during my teenage years. As a young adult in Greece as well, I remember the numerous times friends would gather to play. I remember attempting to play on various occasions across the years. Learning the game was quite simple, but the truth is, it never appealed to me. Besides, I would see it more as a gambling game, and never having been a gambler myself, I think that factor just added to my disinterest.

Then somehow, for some reason, my husband who was an avid player, suggested we should start hosting home games. What started as a casual endeavor to entice our weekends with friends, took an odd turn and soon became a passion!

Our home games were very casual and lots of fun, but then one day, I hit my turning point: 3 buy-ins in the same night and all the confusion in my mind and mixed emotions that followed as I tried to understand why and how. It immediately put me on a quest as I promised myself not to let that happen again, and luckily not only it hasn’t, but it allowed me to improve my game and discover so much more about Poker I never imagined existed.

There is a lot about Poker worth appreciating. It touches such a wide array of players of all ages from around the globe. And when you really get into it, you start to notice how Poker can improve your daily life. Your outcome is highly dependent on your type of personality and character, not to mention your own personal mindset.   

In my next article, I will be talking about poker persona, with a collection of related topics gathered from online content. I will also be tackling the notion of pro as in professional. However, I’d like to leave you on this note:

A 67-year-old translator by profession from Halifax, Canada, donates his $890,000 poker win earlier this year. Read more about it here: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/scott-wellenbach-poker-player-halifax-bahamas-1.4958844

“I would say the world could use a lot more of that [money] at the moment everywhere. And if women receive an education such that they can assume positions of significance in the world, I think we all might be better off”. (Scott Wellenbach)